Robert Bob Okello is a Ugandan tech entrepreneur and ecosystem builder who is expanding Africa’s contribution to the global AI economy. He is the Co-Founder and Chief People Officer at OneNine.dev, an AI data and language technology company that is building the data supply chain for Artificial Intelligence with a focus on low-resource African languages.

Through OneNine.dev, Bob leads efforts to connect African linguists, data annotators, and developers to global AI opportunities. The company currently manages a community of more than 500 transcript reviewers and AI data specialists across Africa who support multilingual datasets and AI training pipelines for international partners.

Bob’s work is guided by a simple conviction: Africa’s linguistic diversity is not a limitation but a powerful advantage in shaping ethical and culturally aligned AI systems. By designing scalable talent pipelines and strong operational frameworks, OneNine.dev is helping position Africa as a meaningful contributor to the next generation of machine intelligence.

Beyond OneNine.dev, Bob is the Founder and CEO of Maarifasasa Limited, a Pan African education technology company that equips young Africans with digital skills for the future of work. His dual focus on learning and data innovation reflects a holistic approach to digital transformation. This approach helps young Africans move from simply using AI tools to building, training, and shaping the technologies that will define tomorrow.

A Tony Elumelu Foundation alumnus and a two-time Davis Projects for Peace awardee, Bob brings more than a decade of experience at the intersection of education, entrepreneurship, and emerging technology. He studied at the University of Oklahoma, where he designed his own degree in African Development Engineering, and at the United World College Red Cross Nordic in Norway.

Across all his work, Bob continues to advocate for Africa’s full inclusion in the global AI conversation. He believes the continent’s voices, data, and talent must play a central role in the intelligent systems that will shape the future of humanity.